When my eldest son Michael was very young his favorite TV show was “Yogi Bear.” This cartoon character along with his friend Boo-Boo lived their lives in Jellystone Park, and most of their time was spent trying to steal food from the picnic baskets of visitors.

We knew of course that the park was in real life Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and maybe that’s why we’ve always had a desire to visit the place and see what it was really like.

We made the trek to it the other day and even before we arrived at the south gate we had the chance of seeing that other marvelous sight, the Grand Tetons that lie just between Jackson Hole and the national park we were to visit.

The Tetons lay off to the west as you traverse the plain and they are every bit as daunting as they are cracked up to be. On the day we passed by, there was occasional cloud covering the highest peak, but this did not prevent a good look as the mist came and went, giving long glimpses of the mountains.

Entry to Yellowstone if you’re over 62 is pretty good. For just $10 dollars you can buy a lifetime card, which entitles you to visit every national park in the country and also bring along four visitors free of charge. Such a deal!

We rode through the park, which is huge, and full of the most incredible scenes of clear water and mountains, and hills. Nothing is taken from the park and the philosophy since the park was opened in 1876, is that nature should be allowed to do its will and not be interfered with by man.

We made a number of stops to take photos, but eventually we exited the park at the west entrance to spend a couple of nights at the town of West Yellowstone, which is a mile or two away and also in the next state over in Montana.

Advertisement

The following morning we were collected at our campsite by a tour company bus; it was eight o’ clock. It was to be a long day as the intended drop off time back there was to be five that evening. Having ridden all the way there we were quite happy to let someone else do the driving and the guide was very good at what he did. He knew a lot about the place, was a true enthusiast, but didn’t overdo the commentary.

The first thing we learned was that the many thousands of dropped lodge pole pines lying around were the result of fires in the area. The trunks used to be sought after by the local tribes of Shoshone Indians for their lodges and teepees. The way the trunks have fallen against other trees no doubt gave them the idea for their triangular shelters.

Next we stopped at a geothermic area of just over a couple of acres. Within this comparatively small area steam escaped, deep sapphire blue pools glistened and mud roiled away. With an underground temperature of 160 degrees it was strongly advised to stay on the path.

The park was opened as the county’s very first national park. It was passed into law by president Ulysses S. Grant. Since then it has seen thousands of visitors daily during its summer season. You might want to avoid the winter where temperatures of below 50 degrees have been recorded.

No visit to Yellowstone is complete without a look at Old Faithful. This geyser blows her stack every 88 minutes. In fact it can be ten to fifteen minutes either side of that, which is why the people who make the predictions call them just that.

When we went along from the log built Old Faithful Inn, which is in itself quite a marvel, the geyser was right on time. After bubbling away and sending up little spurts of water, the main force shot 150 feet into the air. It was a remarkable sight.

In the words of our old cartoon friend Yogi: “Better than the average sight, Boo-Boo!”